Mission Statement:

The Society for Women and the Civil War is dedicated to recognizing the efforts of women who lived through or participated in the American Civil War and those who

research, reenact or otherwise honor these women of the past.

April 2021

The Quarterly Journal

of

The Society for Women and the Civil War

In this Issue

Nineteenth Century Women

Leaders of Engineering and

Industry – Pg. 2

Women in Nineteen Century

Cottage Industry and Rural

Manufacturing – Pg. 9

Civil War-era Women Arsenal,

Factory and Mill Workers – Pg. 20

The Hearth – Pg. 30

Our serialized article, “If Heart

Speaks Not to Heart” will resume

with the July 2021 issue.

FROM THE EDITOR

In this issue, we focus upon the role of women in nineteenth

century industry.

We take a look at some of the women who were leaders and

innovators in engineering and industry supporting the US

war effort. Without their contributions, the Civil War might

have had another outcome.

Before there were the “WOW” of World War II, there were

the Women Ordnance Workers of the Civil War. They were

joined in their service to the war effort by women and

children working in other factory jobs, most notably textile

mills.

Women and children also worked out of their homes, in

cottage industries, to support themselves when the men of

their families were serving in the war – or returned home

maimed and unable to work. In this issue, we highlight the

women and children pipe makers of Pamplin, Virginia.

This experience, along with volunteer activities, provided

women with the opportunities to develop professional and

leadership skills which had been unavailable to them prior

to the Civil War. Recognition of their abilities and

contributions aided in the eventual achievement of suffrage,

and set the stage for opportunities for succeeding

generations of women in a unified nation.

April 2021 Page 2

These four women are not widely-recognized today; however, their pioneering achievements in

engineering and manufacturing had huge impact upon the political, military and social fabric of

the United States as it faced, and then emerged from, the Civil War. They met personal tragedy

with fortitude, resilience and ingenuity. Drawing upon their personal educations, their attentive

observations of early industrial operations, and their own determination, they succeeded against

persistent challenges and difficult odds to provide financially for their families and contribute to

the success of the nation we are today.

Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens

Chemist, Metallurgist, Industrialist

Born 6 January 1794, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Died 10 December 1854, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Rebecca Pennock was born the daughter of the founder of the Federal

Slitting Mill, which was located near Coatesville, Pennsylvania. The

slitting mill processed iron into nails, strips for wagon wheel rims,

hoops for barrels and iron for blacksmiths. The mill, later named the

Brandywine Iron and Nail Company, had begun operations a year

prior to her birth, and the young girl grew up as an assistant to her

father. She was also provided with an excellent education, which

included studies in chemistry.

In 1813, Rebecca Pennock married Dr. Charles Lloyd Lukens, and the couple entered the iron

business, leasing the mill from her father. Beginning in the 1820’s, the Lukens experimented with

new products, including rolled steel plate. They were successful in its development and the mill

joined the ship-building industry as the first US company to produce iron, and later steel

boilerplate. Their iron plate was used in the building of America’s first metal-hulled steam boat,

the Cordorus. The Lukens also pioneered the production of steel plate for use in building early

steam engines.

Widowed in 1825, Rebecca Lukens became the sole owner and manager of the iron and steel

mill.

Continued

Nineteenth Century Women Leaders of Engineering and Industry:

Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens, Isabella Pennock Lukens Huston,

Martha Jane Hunt Coston and Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt

By J. White

April 2021 Page 3

Continued from page 2

She guided the company through its early severe financial difficulties, including legal fights over

the status of the mill’s ownership according to the estates of her late father and husband, an

attempt to steal her water rights (the source of power for her mill) and the Panic of 1837.

She completely modernized the facilities and equipment and quickly built the company into the

premier manufacturer of rolled iron and steel boilerplate in the US. Her boilerplate was exported

to England for use in building the first railway locomotives.

At the same time that Rebecca Lukens was building her iron and steel business, she was building

what she termed “good and substantial tenant houses for my workmen” to provide for her work

force, and investing in other property improvements. She opened a store, warehouse and freight

agency in Coatesville. These businesses not only supported her own endeavors, but served the

local area and provided transportation access for local producers to markets in Philadelphia and

Pittsburgh.

Retiring in 1847, she became a silent partner in the company, turning over daily management to

one of her sons-in-law, Abraham Gibbons.

During World War II, she was honored as the namesake of a Liberty ship, the SS Rebecca Lukens.

In 1994, Pennsylvania’s legislature declared Rebecca Lukens to have been “America’s first

woman industrialist”. At the same time, Fortune Magazine recognized her as “America's first

female CEO of an industrial company”, and the magazine’s board of editors named her to the

National Business Hall of Fame.

Isabella Pennock Lukens Huston

Industrialist

Born 30 November 1822, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Died 5 August 1889, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

When Rebecca Webb Pennock Lukens retired from her steel

company in 1847, she turned over the management to Abraham

Gibbons, the husband of her eldest daughter, Martha. Gibbons soon

took on as a partner another of Rebecca’s sons-in-law, Dr. Charles

Huston, who was married to Rebecca’s youngest daughter, Isabella

Pennock Lukens. After two years, the company’s name was changed

to Gibbons and Huston. Abraham Gibbons soon left the company to

pursue the banking business. At that time, Isabella Huston became her husband’s partner in the

mill.

Continued

April 2021 Page 4

Continued from page 3

When her mother died, Isabella Huston used her inherited shares and her purchase of the shares

of her sister, Martha, to obtain a controlling interest in the mill. She then became the senior partner

in the business, which, honoring her mother, she and her husband re-named the Lukens Rolling

Mill.

In the 1850s, the Hustons expanded the capability of their facilities, allowing them to fulfill orders

for larger-size sheet metal products. Customers included manufacturers in the growing

transportation industry, building railroad locomotives and steamships. Growth continued in the

1860s, and brought another name change: the company was now Huston & Sons. The Civil War

brought much business to the mill; however, the Hustons, as staunch members of the Society of

Friends, refused to manufacture metal products for war material. Yet there remains considerable

credible speculation that the iron plate used to construct the hull of the USS Monitor was

manufactured at the family’s mill.

After the Civil War, the company built a new modern steam-powered mill in 1870 and continued

additional modernizations. Isabella appears to have stepped back from management of the

company during this period. When Dr. Huston died in 1897, the company was turned over to his

and Isabella’s sons.

In 1995, the then-named Lukens Steel Company was the oldest steel mill in operation in the US

and was one of the three largest producers of plate steel and the largest domestic manufacturer of

alloy-plate. It was ranked fourth out of twenty-four publicly-held steel corporations in overall

profitability. It is now part of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company.

Martha Jane Hunt Coston

Chemist, Inventor, Industrialist

Born 12 December 1826, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Died 9 July 1904, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

As a young woman, Martha Coston found herself suddenly widowed,

with children and her mother depending upon her for financial support.

Her husband had been a chemist, inventor and president of the Boston

Gas Company. Prior to his death, one of his projects had been some

initial experimentation for development of a color-coded signaling flare

for use by ships at night. While examining her late husband's papers in

search of ideas for generating income, she discovered the notes he had

written on night signaling. Her husband’s work was very limited and would need much additional

effort before it could become a working signaling system.

Continued

April 2021 Page 5

Continued from page 4

With the advice of hired chemists and pyrotechnics experts, Martha Coston taught herself

chemistry and spent ten years laboring to develop multi-layered colored signaling flares and a

code system for their use. In 1858, her system of three easily-visible colored flares – in red, white

and green – was complete.

The system can be compared to a color-coded version of Morse code. Using different stacked

combinations of the three colors, pre-packaged into individual flares, ships were able to signal to

each other at night time while at sea, and to signal to shore stations. The flares were fired from

specially-modified pistol frames. In early 1859, she was granted the first of two US Patents for

her pyrotechnic night signals and code system. She then set up the Coston Manufacturing

Company to produce the flares.

In 1859, US Navy Captain C.S. McCauley recommended the use of the Coston Naval Flares

System to the Secretary of the Navy. After intensive testing, the US Navy approved the system

and placed an order for a large quantity of flares. Success in the US was followed by her trips to

obtain patents in England, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and to market

the system in those and other countries.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Martha Coston offered the first of her patents for sale to the US

Government in order for the system to be used in naval warfare. The US Navy purchased the

patent for $20,000.00, which was half of her asking price. During the war, the Coston

Manufacturing Company was contracted to produce the flares for the US Navy; however, due to

inflation, the cost to manufacture the flares grew greater than the prices agreed upon in the

contract. After the war, Martha Coston estimated that the US Government owed her $120,000.00

in compensation; but pressing her claims for over ten years only resulted in government

reimbursement of $15,000.00.

During the Civil War, the Coston flare system was used widely by the US Navy. Not only did it

play a key role in the coordination of battle operations, but its use was critical to the successful

night-time discovery and capture of Confederate blockade runners. The flare system was also

used by the US Life-Saving Service – a forerunner of the US Coast Guard – which credited it for

coordinating operations which saved thousands of lives at sea.

Despite the losses incurred in supplying the US government, the usefulness of the flare system

was so critical to communications and safety in military and civilian maritime operations that

Martha Coston’s company successfully remained in business until 1985, eighty-one years after

her death.

In 2006, Martha Coston was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Continued

April 2021 Page 6

Continued from page 5

Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt

Industrialist

Born 5 October 1826, in Saybrook, Connecticut.

Died 23 August 1905, in Newport, Rhode Island.

When we think of Civil War military ordnance, we think of the Colt

Army Model 1860 .44 caliber revolver as one of the most iconic

weapons of the war. We are all aware of the original designer and

producer of Colt’s weapons, Samuel Colt. However, Samuel Colt

died in 1862, and it was his widow, Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, who

ran the Colt Manufacturing Company after his death, through the

Civil War and beyond. A few days after Sam Colt’s death, she also lost her one-year-old daughter

to illness. Six months into running the company, she gave birth to a still-born daughter, and then

her three-year-old daughter died.

Despite her grief, Elizabeth Colt took over the Colt Company, ran it with a deft hand and ensured

that every US Army order for Colt weapons was filled. In 1864, the factory was burned to the

ground, in what was presumed to be the action of Confederate sympathizers. She’d had the

foresight to take out insurance when she took over the company, and so she had the funds to

rebuild the factory, improve it, and make it fire-proof. She expanded the company, and led the

development of new weapons, including the six-shooter Colt Peacemaker and the Colt double-

barreled rifle. By the early 20th century, she had taken the company from percussion and cartridge

revolvers to semiautomatic pistols, rifles and machine guns.

Elizabeth Colt also played a leadership role in social services endeavors. Amongst her efforts,

she founded and led a pioneering organization which provided daycare services, meals and

education for the children of working mothers. Additionally, she founded a soldiers’ aid society

which raised large amounts of funds to support veterans’ services. Having been born the daughter

of an Episcopalian minister, she also provided extensive financial support for the family members

of deceased clergy members and funded the construction of memorial religious buildings.

After the Civil War, in 1869, she organized America’s first women’s suffrage convention. A true

Renaissance woman, she who was referred to as the “First Lady of Connecticut” was also a

prominent art collector and leading patron of architecture and the decorative arts. She died as one

of the country’s wealthiest and most respected persons, outliving her only surviving child by

eleven years.

Continued

April 2021 Page 7

Continued from page 6

Sources

“Chester County and the Civil War”, Robert M. Goshorn, History Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3,

Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society, April 1963.

“Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt”, Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, 1997.

https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/elizabety-hart-jarvis-colt

“Elizabeth Jarvis Colt”, Wikipedia, 18 March 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Jarvis_Colt

“Elizabeth Jarvis Colt Survives To Make the Colt .45”, New England Historical Society, undated.

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/elizabeth-jarvis-colt-survives-to-make-the-colt-

45/

“Martha Coston”, American Civil War Story, undated.

http://www.americancivilwarstory.com/martha-coston.html

“Isabella Huston”, My Heritage, undated. https://www.myheritage.com/names/isabella_huston

Continued

The Cordorus, First Iron-Hulled Steam Boat,

Built with Iron Plate from the Brandywine Iron

and Nail Company/Lukens Rolling Mill

Newbern Sentinel, New Bern, North Carolina,

21 February 1829.

(Image from YorksPast.)

Coston’s Composition Night Signal Flares.

(Image from Inventricity.)

Colt Army Revolver Model 1860.

(Image from Colt Collectors Association.)

April 2021 Page 8

Continued from page 7

“Isabella Huston and younger son, Charles L. Huston”, Hagley Digital Archives, undated.

Isabella Huston and younger son, Charles L. Huston | Hagley Digital Archives

“Lost letters shed light on Lukens steel from Coatesville, Pa.”, Peter Crimmins, WHYY

Television, PBS/NPR, 13 March 2015. https://whyy.org/articles/lost-letters-shed-light-on-

lukens-steel-from-coatesville-pa/

“Lukens”, The National Iron & Steel Heritage Museum, undated.

https://www.steelmuseum.org/railroad_exhibit_2015/process_lukens.cfm

“Lukens Steel – A Brief History”, Stewart Huston Charitable Trust, 2010.

https://stewarthuston.org/hist_luk.cfm

“Lukens Steel Company”, Wikipedia, 25 March 2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukens_Steel_Company

“Martha Coston, Inventricity, undated. http://www.inventricity.com/martha-coston-inventor

“Martha Coston”, Wikipedia, 13 June 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Coston

“Martha Coston - Signal Flares used by Ships - US Patent No. 115,935 - Inducted in 2006 - Born

December 12, 1826 - Died July 9, 1904”, National Inventors Hall of Fame, undated.

https://www.invent.org/inductees/martha-coston

“Martha J. Coston – Pyrotechnic signaling system”, Lemelson-MIT, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, undated. https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/martha-j-coston

“Martha Jane Hunt Coston”, Find a Grave, undated.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42249277/martha-jane-coston

“’Night Signals’ [Coston Flares] by Madame Martha J. Coston”, Signal Corps Association 1860-

1865, undated. http://civilwarsignals.org/pages/signal/signalpages/flare/coston.html

“Rebecca Lukens”, History of American Women, Women History blog, undated.

https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2014/04/rebecca-lukens.html

See also: “National Register of Women’s Service in the Civil War (NRWSCW) – Woman of the

Month – “Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, Military Industrialist and Philanthropist”, J. White, The

Calling Card, Society for Women and the Civil War, 16 April 2020.

April 2021 Page 9

The Beginnings of Pamplin-Area Pipe-Making

Thirteen miles southeast of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, lies the community of Pamplin,

rich in the resources necessary for making clay smoking pipes. Ceramics-making clays in the

Pamplin area of Appomattox County and nearby Powhatan County are unique to the region. They

have always been of high quality, but, rather than the lighter-colored clays found in other areas

of the East Coast, they are noted for a deep brown, red or yellow color. They produce

predominantly light brown- to red-colored clay pipes. Mixing the local red dirt into the clay can

provide a deeper red product.

Clay pipes for tobacco-smoking had been made in the Central Virginia area by the Appomatucks

Native Americans since prehistoric times. Caucasian settlers began arriving in the area during the

late 1730s-1740s. As pipes were the primary means for smoking tobacco until after the Civil War,

they were required personal implements for the settlers. Pipe production by these settlers began

in 1739, with pipe makers – mostly older women – using the local clays to make distinctively-

colored pipes of various styles. Pipe makers in the Pamplin area gradually moved away from the

early-American settlement European model which featured a small clay bowl and very long, and

often fragile, clay stem – ranging from 18 to 36 inches long – which we now describe as a “Church

Warden” style. The Pamplin model was adapted from that produced by Native Americans. It

featured a larger bowl with a short thick proto-stem, into which a longer, and replaceable, stem,

usually a hollow reed or a quill from a goose or turkey, often stuck through a piece of cork to

secure it, would be inserted. American laborers preferred the shorter 6” reed stem of the Pamplin

model because it permitted them to more easily smoke while working. It also suited women pipe

smokers, who continued the activity, particularly in the South, until well after the Civil War. The

larger bowl also represented Americans’ more affordable access to a domestic supply of tobacco

in the late 18th to 19th Century. The Pamplin pipes were predominantly plain in design or with a

simple ribbed or cross-hatched pattern, but approximately 30 patterns have been identified as

associated with Pamplin’s home pipe makers.

Continued

Women in Nineteenth Century Cottage Industry and Rural

Manufacturing – The Pipe Makers of Pamplin

By J. White

April 2021 Page 10

Continued from page 9

Continued

Collection of Cottage Industry Home-Made Pamplin Pipes.

(Image from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Department of Historic Resources.)

Close-Up Image of Excavated Ash-Mottled Cottage

Industry Home-Made Pamplin Pipe.

(Image from Worth Point.)

April 2021 Page 11

Continued from page 10

The Pamplin cottage industry pipes were initially sold directly from the makers to general stores

located locally and regionally. The stores either re-sold the pipes or provided them as free

accessories to accompany boxes of wooden matches or pouches of tobacco purchased by

customers. Pamplin pipes also found their way to other regions, and served as popular

commodities in the early 19th Century fur trade. A well-known American painting of 1845,

“Bartering for a Bride”, by Alfred Jacob Miller, clearly features the use of a Pamplin pipe, as

adorned by a Native American with beads and feathers for ceremonial use, and observed by the

artist in the Oregon Territory. Several works of similar subject matter, by the same artist, painted

between 1837 and 1860, also feature images of Native American use of Pamplin pipes.

With the arrival in the area of a rail line in the decade before the Civil War, access to wider

markets became more conveniently available in the 1850s-1860s. The Pamplin pipes could then

be shipped to general stores in more distant regions. In the late 1850s, a local inspection station

was established in the basement of a town drug store. The pipe makers took their finished pipes

to the station in order to be individually graded and purchased for re-sale by a local wholesaler.

For rail transportation, the pipes were packaged two dozen to a box and were then packed in

barrels and crates lined with sawdust or pine needles.

Pipe Making During the Civil War

The military campaigns and economic necessities of the Civil War adversely impacted the

production and availability of tobacco; however, it remained a commodity available in the area

in which Pamplin pipes were made.

Continued

Detail from “Bartering for a Bride”, Alfred Jacob Miller, 1845.

(Image from “Fur Traders and Rendezvous” Collection,

Alfred Jacob Miller Catalogue Raisonné)

April 2021 Page 12

Continued from page 11

The war did create a high demand for the clay pipes: when tobacco or its substitutes were

available, smoking their pipes provided contemplative comfort and solace to soldiers in the field

and to civilians at home.

With military disruption of rail and water routes raising the cost of transportation during the war,

the Pamplin pipe makers usually earned just about half a penny per pipe produced, or that value

in barter for foodstuffs and goods at a local store. This was still a great benefit for the rural home

pipe makers whose male family members had gone to war – or who had died in battle – leaving

them in great need of the income earned from making pipes. Older women and children could

produce the pipes while younger women would perform the heavier manual labor required to

sustain the farm or household.

The economic survival of the Pamplin community during the Civil War is credited by local

historians to the home industry of the women pipe makers. The extent of Civil War-era popularity

and distribution of their Pamplin pipes is exemplified by the finding of large quantities of them

in the cargo hold of the steamship Bertrand which was shipwrecked in 1865, on the Missouri

River, while enroute to the Montana Territory.

Making Pamplin Pipes in the Home

Once the clay was dug and prepared, the first step in making the pipe was to shape it inside a

mold made from wood or carved from locally-available soap stone. After removing the clay from

the mold, the woman would smooth or highlight the mold marks with a shaping tool. She might

also use a lead tool to stamp a personal craftsperson’s mark on the base of the pipe. The pipes

would then be set out on a board to dry in the sun. In the wintertime, or during dampness, the

pipes could be dried on the hearth or in a low-temperature oven. In order to be hardened for use,

pipes would be placed inside iron kettles, or pots made of high heat-tolerant fireclay, called

saggers. The pipe-filled saggers would be set inside a fireplace or a large oven in the pipe maker’s

back yard. The saggers would be surrounded with a high-temperature fire from seasoned chestnut

logs. Purposely allowing some hot wood ash to fall onto the pipes in the saggers would achieve

blackening or mottling of the pipes. Additional colors could be obtained by varying the pipes’

heat exposure within the fire. The firing process could take up to three days. Once the fire had

burned out, the pipes were removed from the saggers to cool. The cooled pipes were rubbed with

a boiled mixture of lard or mutton tallow with beeswax, then burnished with wool cloth.

Continued

April 2021 Page 13

Continued from page 12

Continued

Pamplin Cottage Industry Pipe-Making Molding Tools.

(Image from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Department of Historic Resources.)

Pamplin Cottage Industry Pipe-Making Saggers.

(Image from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Department of Historic Resources.)

April 2021 Page 14

Continued from page 13

Post-Civil War and the Pamplin Pipe Factory

After the war, the home-based pipe makers were joined by the Pamplin Smoking Pipe and

Manufacturing Company, which operated from 1878 until 1951. In the nineteenth century, the

factory used mechanical pipe-making machines, invented in the 1840s by the Merrill family, of

Ohio. The foot-powered machines used interchangeable metal molds in order to form a variety

of designs in a number of sizes. The factory is believed to have used eight to ten of the machines

at once, operated by ten to forty employees at a time.

The factory kiln was a large hollow circular brick structure with multiple access points. Saggers

filled with dried, but not hardened, pipes were stacked alternatively around the interior of the kiln.

Firing usually took up to 48 hours, followed by an equally-long cooling period. During firing,

salt could be poured through roof holes in order to glaze the pipes. It is reasonable to speculate

that some of the early salt was produced by local artisans in Central Virginia’s Saltville.

Continued

Mid-19th Century E. H. Merrill Mechanical Pipe-making Press of the

Type Used by the Pamplin Smoking Pipe and Manufacturing Company.

(Image from the Blue & White Pottery/Old Sleepy Eye Collectors Club.)

April 2021 Page 15

Continued from page 14

Reeds for producing straight or bent stems for the pipes were cut from plants growing in Eastern

Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp and transported to the factory.

Capable of producing one million pipes a month, the Pamplin pipe factory grew to enjoy the

highest production rate of clay smoking pipe production in the world. The cottage industry pipe

makers were not threatened by the factory because they did not compete for the same markets.

Some of the factory workers were also drawn from the work force of the home pipe makers.

Additionally, the home pipe makers produced un-fired pipe blanks for the factory. Both the home

pipe makers and the factory continued to use a number of the same designs for the pipe bowls.

In the late 1940s, newly-enacted US labor laws, requiring higher minimum wages, made it too

expensive for the factory to continue operations, but the home pipe makers were not affected by

these challenges. The mid-20th Century rise in the popularity of cigarettes did, however, hurt the

popularity of pipe-smoking and thereafter, only a handful of home pipe makers continued the area

tradition. With the exception of a few artisans who revived the craft using original and

reproduction molds in the second half of the 20th Century, production of original Pamplin pipes

ended in 1953, with the death of the last 19th Century-era woman Pamplin pipe maker.

Continued

Betty Price, Last of the Nineteenth Century Pamplin Pipe Makers.

(Image from the Commonwealth of Virginia

Department of Historic Resources.)

April 2021 Page 16

Continued from page 15

During the period 1976-2009, small-scale manufacturing was revived at the Pamplin pipe plant,

with simultaneous operation as a museum. The structure of the Pamplin pipe factory and the

remains of its kilns were purchased by the Archaeological Conservancy in 2010. The

Conservancy has made the site available for study by professional archaeologists. With funding

from the Commonwealth of Virginia, a preservation easement was granted by the Conservancy

to the Commonwealth. Plans were made for ownership to be transferred to the Appomattox

Historical Society for future use as a museum. Preservation and restoration of the factory is

supported by historical organizations in the Appomattox area and by efforts of the

Commonwealth of Virginia. The factory is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and

the Virginia Landmarks Register, and as a priority for restoration by Preservation Virginia.

The Legacy

The late 20th Century’s growth in popularity of living history participation has brought new

interest in Pamplin pipes as reenactor accessories. Caches of thousands of unused original pipes

have been found in the Pamplin area, most notably discovered in the pre- and Civil War-era drug

store basement inspection station. Individual pipes from these sources, along with those found in

old general stores, dug at Civil War battlefield sites, or found in excavated dumps, are available

for purchase in antique stores, at on-line auctions, and on-line from retailers, including those on

eBay or Etsy, all at reasonable prices. They are particularly easily found in the Central Virginia

area. New pipes made using original Pamplin molds, as well as those made from reproduction

molds, are often available from sutlers catering to the reenacting community.

Continued

The Pamplin Smoking Pipe and Manufacturing Company Preserve,

Showing its Partially-Reconstructed Round Multi-Hearth Kiln, Pamplin, Virginia.

The Kiln Could Hold Up to 200,000 Pipes During a Firing.

(Image from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Historic Resources.)

April 2021 Page 17

Continued from page 16

The best-known curated collection of home-made and factory-made Pamplin pipes is housed at

the University of Missouri’s Museum of Anthropology, a gift from Henry and Jean Hamilton.

The couple examined nearly 4500 Pamplin pipes while preparing their 1972 definitive treatise on

the pipes, “Clay Pipes from Pamplin”. SWCW organizational member Pallas Athena Ladies Aid

Society regularly provides an interpreted exhibit on the cottage industry Pamplin pipes at the

antebellum tobacco farmer’s cabin on the grounds of the American Civil War Museum in

Appomattox, Virginia.

As a note, the Pamplin name will be familiar to those interested in the history of the Civil War:

the creation of the Civil War-focused Pamplin Historical Park, near Petersburg, Virginia, was

funded by descendants of the original owners of the Pamplin pipe factory.

Sources

“17 Antique Excavated Pipes From Pamplin Pipe Factory Virginia Clay Pipes”, Worth Point

Auction Price Evaluation Site, undated, downloaded 26 April 2021.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/17-antique-excavated-pipes-pamplin-1964225376

“277-0002 Pamplin Pipe Factory”, Historic Register, Virginia Department of Historic Resources,

17 June 1980, updated 1 April 2020. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/277-0002/

“Civil War Reenacting and Pipe Smoking”, Pipes Magazine, 25 January 2014.

https://pipesmagazine.com/forums/threads/civil-war-reenacting-and-pipe-smoking.30090/

“Civil War Tobacco Pipes – A Soldier Craft of Conflict”, Ben Rapaport, South Florida Opulence

Magazine, Winter 2020. https://internationalopulence.com/civil-war-pipes/

Continued

Pamplin Pipe with Reed Stem, Side View and Close-Up.

(Images from Rust2Retro, Etsy.)

April 2021 Page 18

Continued from page 17

“Clay Pipes”, Dawnmist Studio Clay Pipe Shop, website, 2 April 2021.

http://www.dawnmist.org/pipesale.htm

“Clay Pipes”, Tobacco Pipes website, undated. https://www.tobaccopipes.com/clay-pipes/

“Clay Pipes from Pamplin”, Henry and Jean Hamilton, The Missouri Archaeologist, Vol. 34, no.

1 and 2, December 1972. https://gutenburg.org/files/63219/63219-h/63219-h.htm

“Clay Tobacco Pipes”, Mountain Men and Life in the Rocky Mountain West blog, Michael

Schaubs, 9 September 2020. www.mman.us/claytobaccopipes.htm

“Extra Voices: Tobacco”, Addendum to “Voices”, The Civil War Monitor, Spring 2018, as posted

on-line in The Civil War Monitor blog, 16 March 2018.

https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/blog/extra-voices-tobacco

“Fur Traders and Rendezvous” Collection, The Alfred Jacob Miller Online Catalog, sponsored

by The Ricketts Art Foundation, The Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the Museum of the

Mountain Man, undated. http://www.alfredjacobmiller.com/artworks/the-trappers-bride/

“Historic Virginia – Pamplin Pipe Factory, Appomattox County – An Archaeological Preserve –

A gallery of images selected and annotated”, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, in

collaboration with The Archaeological Conservancy, 2021.

https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/SlideShows/Pamplin/pamplinTitleSlide.html

“History of Pamplin, Va”, Nancy Jamerson Weiland”, posted as “History”, “Town of Pamplin”,

Appomattox County Government website, undated.

https://www.appomattoxcountyva.gov/visitors/about-appomattox/town-of-pamplin/history

Note: The Jamerson family has long been one of the most prominent families of Appomattox

County, Virginia.

“How To Make a Civil War Pipe Kit”, Paula and Coach McCoach, How To Advice blog, undated.

http://www.howtoadvice.com/PipeKit

“Native clay pipes on Roanoke island sparked an English tobacco industry and helped save

Jamestown”, Jeff Hampton, The Virginian-Pilot, 16 January 2021.

https://www.pilotonline.com/history/vp-nw-clay-pipe-20210116-

chfxnr6xpvg7zkqzb5z4ivbw3q-story.html

Continued

April 2021 Page 19

Continued from page 18

“Other Tobacco Products: Pipes and Snuff for Women” in “Coffin Nails – The Tobacco

Controversy in the 19th Century”, a collection of extracts addressing tobacco use from issues of

Harper’s Weekly, HarpWeek blog, undated.

https://tobacco.harpweek.com/hubpages/CommentaryPage.asp?Commentary=PipesAndSnuff

Pamplin History and Pipe Industry, Raymond Carl Dickerson, Pine Haven Press, Lynchburg,

Virginia. 1983. Note: With his wife, Nancy Gordon Martin Dickerson, Raymond Carl Dickerson

owned and operated the Pamplin Pipe Factory during its last period of active production, 1976-

2009.

“Pamplin Pipe Factory”, Wikipedia, 24 October 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamplin_Pipe_Factory

“Pamplins create scholarship program for university”, Larry Hincker, Spectrum Magazine,

Virginia Tech University, Volume 19 Issue 27, 10 April 1997.

https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/vtpubs/spectrum/sp970410/1a.html

“Prince Edward County seal -- wheat sheaf vs tobacco hand”, “Some Observations About Prince

Edward County’s 250 Years of History” column, Prince ED-words, Rev. Dr. William E.

Thompson, The Farmville Herald, 24 September 2004. http://fpehs.org/pewords.html

“Southern Tobacco In The Civil War”, excerpt from “The Confederacy”, Orville Vernon

Burton and Henry Kamerling, Macmillan Information Now Encyclopedia, undated, posted in

Civil War Home blog, 9 March 2002.

“Update E: Exploring Early Industry at the Pamplin Pipe Factory”, The Archaeological

Conservancy, Archaeological Conservancy, 31 July 2015.

https://www.archaeologicalconservancy.org/update-e-exploring-early-industry-pamplin-pipe-

factory/

Personal Collection of Pamplin Pipes, J. White. Obtained in Appomattox and Amherst,

Virginia, 2012-2018.

Personal Observations of the Pamplin Pipe Factory Preserve, J. White, 2018.

April 2021 Page 20

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution offered new opportunities

for American women, providing them with an emerging form of economic independence. If

women chose not to marry – or to delay marriage, if they needed to leave difficult family

situations, if they found themselves widowed, or if their families were otherwise destitute, work

in the new factories and mills provided them with a means of support. According to historians of

early industry in the Mid-West, despite society initially frowning upon it, these women were more

inclined to work in industry than were American men, who disliked work in factories. While men

saw factory work as a loss of personal freedom, women viewed it as a means of gaining freedom.

Women were employed in a wide spectrum of industrial occupations which required skilled labor,

concentration and dexterity in machine operation or hand work. These included all aspects of

textile and clothing production; shoe-making; production of large-scale rolled paper; book,

magazine and newspaper illustration, printing and binding; food production and canning;

decoration of ceramics and finishing of metalwork; toy-making; envelope-making; paper box-

making; umbrella-making and more activities.

Continued

Civil War-era Women Arsenal, Factory and Mill Workers

By J. White

Women Textile Mill Worker in Lowell, Massachusetts.

(Image from the National Park Service.)

April 2021 Page 21

Continued from page 20

During the Civil War the landscape of women’s work in industry expanded rapidly, if

temporarily. They found themselves working in munitions arsenals, performing work such as

cartridge-forming. More were working in textile mills, enlarged to serve the demands of armies.

Still others were employed in factories and workshops cutting patterns and sewing military

uniforms, blankets and shelters.

Continued

Women Food Preparation Workers, Silver Burnishers, Book Assemblers, and Toy Painters.

Selected Sketches by Stanley Fox from “Women and Their Work”, Harper’s Bazaar, 14 April 1868.

April 2021 Page 22

Continued from page 21

Pay and Working Conditions

Pay for women in industry was usually poor. According to historians of the Ohio Historical

Society, women routinely worked for twelve to sixteen hours per day, six days per week. Factory

owners usually paid women one-half to two-thirds of the pay given to men doing the same job.

The specious justification for this was that men worked to support their families, and women

worked only to provide additional income. In 1850, a woman garment worker in a Cleveland

factory earned approximately two dollars per week. A woman working in a shoe factory in

Cincinnati fared slightly better at three dollars per week, but her employer routinely deducted the

cost of supplies from her wages.

Working conditions were often harsh and unsafe; factories in the early- to mid-nineteenth century

were usually not heated in the winter, and most also lacked sufficient light and ventilation.

Machinery was closely-spaced, and poorly-lit. Hazardous working parts and belts were often not

protected with guards against entanglement. Noxious fumes from chemicals, dyes, paints and

machine lubricants were pervasive in the close spaces.

Workers usually received only “on-the-job” training and that which we know of as “safety

training” was not then customary. The lack of sufficient formal knowledge of engineering,

mechanics, metallurgy and chemistry amongst most of the women workers often endangered

themselves and their fellow workers. Ignorant or careless handling of hazardous materials,

particularly those which were sub-components of explosives, could spell immediate disaster.

Continued

“Filling Cartridges. Women working at the U.S. Arsenal,

Watertown, Massachusetts.” Harper’s Weekly, July 1861.

(Image from the Library of Congress.)

April 2021 Page 23

Continued from page 22

If a woman was injured or fell ill on the job, there was nothing like 21st Century health care

benefits or workers' compensation: most employers simply fired the injured or sick worker. If she

was killed on the job, there was no financial assistance for her family. Only if there was public

attention focused upon a specific large-scale war-related industrial tragedy would there be public

funds-raising to support the victims and their families.

Housing

As the needs of the early nineteenth century industrial workforce grew, mill owners, particularly

in the Northeast, began offering their women workers lodging in company-built wooden boarding

houses. By the mid-1830s, this practice expanded, with structures built conveniently close to the

mills and factories. Often employers required that their single women employees who were

without families in the community reside in the boarding houses.

By the time of the Civil War, most urban-area employee boarding houses were constructed of

brick and could house thirty to forty women each. Some were known to cram up to one hundred

women boarders into a single structure. Located on the first floor were a kitchen and dining room,

as well as quarters for the house manager. Bedrooms on the upper floors provided sleeping areas,

usually for four to eight women per room, sleeping two women per bed.

Continued

Women Paper Mill Workers.

(Image from Ballou’s Pictorial, 9 June 1855,)

Author’s Note: Observe the long and full skirts close to

unguarded roller mechanisms.

April 2021 Page 24

Continued from page 23

Women residing together in the boarding houses would form tight communities, with the more-

experienced commonly providing some comfort and mentoring for those newly-arrived to the

workforce. The residents also were closely observed by the boarding house managers – a good

job for older women, especially those with children – who were obliged to report tenant

misbehavior to factory and mill owners.

Continued

Mid-Nineteenth Century Brick Boarding House for Women Mill

Workers, Lowell, Massachusetts.

(Image from the Library of Congress.)

Mid-Nineteenth Century Wooden Clapboard Housing for

Women Textile Mill Workers, Roswell, Georgia.

(Image from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.)

April 2021 Page 25

Continued from page 24

The Hazards of War

Work in munitions factories was particularly dangerous. Women and children were considered

physically well-suited for this work, due to their small hand sizes and that which was considered

particular attentiveness to their work. The workspaces were indoors, much of the labor was

performed sitting at tables, and the work did not require great physical exertion - all of which

appealed to female employees.

A number of major explosions in arsenals cost the lives of large numbers of women and children

munitions workers, many of them young immigrants. These included the Allegheny Arsenal

explosion of September 1862 in Pittsburgh, the Confederate Ordnance Laboratory explosion of

March 1863 at Tredegar Arsenal/Brown’s Island in Richmond; and the Washington Arsenal

explosion of June 1864 in the District of Columbia. Despite the attendant publicity for the tragic

loss of life and horrific maiming in arsenal explosions and fires, women continued to seek work

in these positions. Two weeks after the burials of fifty victims of the Tredegar Arsenal explosion

– most of them in their young teens – the Arsenal called for 200 new girls to work there, and the

call was answered.

Continued

Monument to Women Munitions Workers

Killed in the Washington Arsenal Explosion,

Congressional Cemetery, Washington DC.

(Image from the Library of Congress.)

April 2021 Page 26

Continued from page 25

Women workers in southern mills and factories which were captured or burned by the US Army

not only lost their livelihoods, and often their lodging, but found their lives at risk in the military

action. The Saluda cotton and textile mill in Saluda, South Carolina – one of the largest producers

of cloth for Confederate uniforms – was one such exemplar. Its workforce was mostly women,

250-strong, with many of them enslaved. The mill grounds were surrounded by a prisoner of war

camp housing captured US troops, but the prisoners were removed to another location in advance

of US Army campaigning through the state. US forces under the command of Major General O.

O. Howard burned the granite mill and its dependencies to the ground in February 1865. At least

one officer later wrote to his family to describe in disparaging terms the women workers thus

displaced.

Continued

Grave Markers for Some of the Women Killed in the

Confederate Ordnance Laboratory Explosion,

Tredegar Arsenal/Brown’s Island.

Shockoe Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

(Photograph by Bert Dunkerly.)

Author’s Note: Installation of the Shockoe Cemetery

grave markers was funded

as a project of the current-day Dixie Rose Relief Society.

Saluda Cotton and Textile Mill, Saluda, South Carolina,

as Sketched Prior to Destruction by US Forces.

(Harper’s Weekly, 1 April 1865.)

April 2021 Page 27

Continued from page 26

The women textile mill and rope walk workers of the communities of Roswell, Marietta and New

Manchester, north of Atlanta, were handed a notoriously cruel fate by US forces. When their mills

were destroyed by US forces, during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, US Major General W. T.

Sherman ordered that the mill workers, approximately 400 from Roswell alone, be arrested. Most

of them young women and teenagers, they were charged as traitors for working to supply the

needs of the Confederate forces. They and their children were forcibly exiled by wagon and rail

to the Mid-West, where they were abandoned without provision of a means of support. Many

died of starvation, exposure and disease - few of the deportees were ever able to return.

Social Reform for Women in Industry

Philanthropic organizations, such as the “Female Protective Union” and the “Women’s Christian

Association” were founded to assist and protect women workers in the larger cities of the North

and Mid-West. These associations sought to improve working conditions, reduce working hours

requirements, improve pay, and establish low-cost boarding houses for the workers. Some of

these associations and individual reformers established newspapers, such as The Voice of Industry

and the Factory Girl’s Garland, and wrote tracts to help inform and educate the workers.

Continued

Martha Eldridge and Synthia Stewart,

Two of the Teen-Aged Roswell Mill Workers

Deported from Georgia to the Mid-West by US Forces.

(Image from RoswellWomen.com.)

April 2021 Page 28

Continued from page 27

The welfare associations and individual reformers were limited in their organizing capabilities

prior to the Civil War. In the post-war period, they were greater able to use journalism to draw

attention to the contributions of women to critical industries during the war. Evolving into early

elements of the suffrage movement, they then found growing success with lobbying state

legislatures in the adoption of laws to improve working conditions for women.

Sources

“A Woman’s Work is Never Done – Factory Workers”, AAS Online Exhibition, American

Society, 2004. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Womanswork/factory.htm

“A Woman’s Work is Never Done – Miscellaneous Occupations”, AAS Online Exhibition,

American Antiquarian Society, 2004.

https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Womanswork/miscellaneous.htm

“Arsenal Explosion Danville VA 1865”, Arsenal Explosion blog, 2 July 2010.

https://arsenalexplosion.blogspot.com

“Boardinghouses”, Lowell, Story of an Industrial City: a guide to Lowell National Historical Park

and Lowell Heritage State Park, Lowell, Massachusetts, Thomas Dublin, National Park Service,

1992. https://www.nps.gov/articles/lowell-handbook-boardinghouses.htm

“The Brown’s Island Explosion Victims”, Bert Dunkerly, Blue and Gray Dispatch, 4 December

2020. www.blueandgraayeducation.org.

“Deportation of Roswell Mill Women”, New Georgia Encyclopedia, 12 August 2013.

https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/deportation-roswell-mill-

women

“Extra Voices: Tobacco”, The Civil War Monitor, 16 March 2018.

https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/blog/extra-voices-tobacco

“Farewell, Sisters, Farewell”, Joan Chaconas, The Surratt Courier, April 2014.

https://e5ec1477-9120-45b9-bf06-

b84967a7a27b.filesusr.com/ugd/b78e5a_b77baded4c2d4e689efb6561e2541bf7.pdf

Continued

April 2021 Page 29

Continued from page 28

“The Mill Girls of Lowell”, Lowell National Historical Park, National Park Service, 15 November

2018. https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/historyculture/the-mill-girls-of-lowell.htm

“Old Saluda Factory”, SC Picture Project, undated. https://www.scpictureproject.org/lexington-

county/old-saluda-factory.html

“Roswell Mill Worker Monument”. RoswellWomen.com – A companion site to the “Women Will

Howl” memorial website, 2018. https://www.roswellwomen.com/Mill-worker-Monument.html

“Saluda River Factory Ruins”, Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, undated.

https://www.riverbanks.org/historic-landmarks/factory-ruins

“Union or Confederate, American Women Played Crucial Roles in the Civil War Effort”, Sarah

Bahr, Hektoen International Journal, Hektoen Institute of Medicine, 22 January 2017.

https://www.hekint.org/2017/01/22/union-or-confederate-american-women-played-crucial-

roles-in-the-civil-wa-effort

“The Washington Arsenal’s Explosive History – A Terrible Tragedy” Streets of Washington –

Stories and images of historic Washington, D. C., 16 August 2017.

http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2017/08/the-washington-arsenals-explosive.html

“Women Amidst War”, The Civil War Remembered, Thavolia Glymph and Nina Silber, National

Park Service and Eastern National, undated. https://www.nps.gov/articles/women-amidst-the-

war.htm

“Women and Their Work”, “Volume I, Number 25: Harper's bazaar” [Issue of 18 April 1868],

Cornell University Library Digital Collections.

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/hearth4732809_1442_025

“Women in the Industrial Workforce”, Ohio History Central, Ohio Historical Society, undated.

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Women_in_the_Industrial_Workforce

April 2021 Page 30

THE HEARTH

Dandelion Greens/Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

History

One of the first heralds of spring is always the sight of sprouting dandelions: for some a curse,

for others a culinary treasure.

The dandelion had been cultivated in Europe since Roman times, and was widely considered an

important source of nutrition as well as strong medicinal properties. It was not native to America,

but early 17th Century English settlers brought dandelions with them as key resources for survival.

As they naturalized, Native American adopted their use.

For the 19th Century cook, spring meant that the few pickled and preserved vegetables remaining

in the larder from the winter could finally be augmented by fresh edible greens. The nutritious

young dandelion greens which had not yet flowered would be pulled from home gardens prior to

setting out plants for the growing season. If the greens were left to mature, they became somewhat

bitter, but the opened flowers of the mature plants were also edible. They could be eaten raw in

salads, fried in oil for eating warm, used to make wine or used to flavor distilled clear spirits.

They could also be used to make jams. Additionally, dandelion roots could be boiled and steeped

into a tisane. In the Civil War South, the roots would be roasted, dried, ground, and made into a

coffee substitute.

Continued

April 2021 Page 31

Continued from page 30

Within Pennsylvania German communities, it was traditional to first pick the greens on the

Thursday before Easter – “Maundy Thursday” or “Holy Thursday”. It was locally referred to as

“Green Thursday” because of the picking of the greens. Children would harvest the greens and

bring them to groups of women to spread out on tables, pick through, and clean. Raw or wilted,

the tender young dandelion greens would then be served with ham and cooked potatoes at special

church and community dinners in southeastern and central Pennsylvania. For a meatless version,

often desired by some Christian communities on the next day – Good Friday – the greens could

be served without ham, but simply placed on top of the cooked potatoes.

The farmers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, prepared a popular salad using the dandelion

greens; they called it Lowenzahn Salat (Dandelion Salad). They later adapted it for use with fresh

baby spinach, which would also be available by mid-Spring. Their salad, with a dressing made of

bacon drippings and vinegar, was topped with hard-boiled eggs, serving as a symbol of Easter-

time Christian spiritual renewal. Mushrooms were added to the salad recipe in the 1890s. They

became readily available in the area with the development of local mushroom farming. The

vegetables were grown in otherwise unused space under flower growing shelves in local green

houses.

Continued

Traditional Dandelion Greens Salad

(Image from Deposit Photos)

April 2021 Page 32

Continued from page 31

Recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Young spinach leaves, 4 loosely-filled cups, washed, rinsed and dried. Cut off stems if

tough. (See note below regarding using dandelion greens.)

Large eggs, at least 4, hard-boiled, cooled, shelled and sliced.

Thick-sliced bacon, 8 pieces, cooked until crisp, then drained and crumbled.

Large white button mushrooms, at least 4, cleaned, trimmed and sliced.

Small red onion, 1, sliced very thinly.

Drippings reserved from frying bacon, 3 tablespoons.

Red wine vinegar, 3 tablespoons.

White sugar, 1 teaspoon.

Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Directions

Salad:

Assemble greens in four bowls or on four plates. Arrange sliced eggs, mushrooms and onions on

top of greens. Crumble bacon on top.

Dressing:

19th Century method - Place the bacon drippings in a small metal sauce pan or ceramic pipkin on

a low trivet or spider over low heat coals or hot ash. Stir or whisk in the vinegar, sugar and Dijon

mustard. Season with small pinches of salt and black pepper. Warm through until the sugar is

dissolved and the dressing is slightly thickened. Taste the dressing – if it is too sweet, add more

vinegar; if it is too sour, add more sugar. Drizzle over salads and serve immediately.

Continued

Redware Pipkin on Handled Trivet.

(Image from Jas. Townsend & Sons.)

April 2021 Page 33

Continued from page 32

21st Century method - Place the bacon drippings in a small metal sauce pan over low heat on a

stove top. A sauce pan with an enameled interior serves best. Stir or whisk in the vinegar, sugar

and Dijon mustard. Season with small pinches of salt and black pepper. Warm through until the

sugar is dissolved and the dressing is slightly thickened. Taste the dressing – if it is too sweet,

add more vinegar; if it is too sour, add more sugar. Drizzle over salads and serve immediately.

Notes

Greens and vegetables:

Fresh organic dandelion greens may be used in place of spinach for traditional authenticity. They

may be found in farm markets, in high-end grocery stores, and at reliable specialty on-line

produce vendors. DO NOT use dandelions from your yard – they may be contaminated with

harmful landscaping products. Dandelion greens are often quite sandy, so they should be well-

washed. Purchased dandelion greens are usually tougher than young spinach, so chopping them

after cleaning will make them more easily consumed.

Leaf lettuce, arugula, endive, poke shoots or other slightly bitter greens edible when raw may be

substituted for the dandelion greens or spinach.

Alternative vegetables for the salad include thinly-sliced young radishes, raw jicama or carrots,

thinly-sliced cooked new potatoes, and drained canned garbanzo beans.

Continued

Dandelion Greens Purchased From a Specialty Market.

(Image from Kejora Fresh)

April 2021 Page 34

Continued from page 33

Dressing:

Some cooks whisk a pinch of corn starch or potato starch into the dressing to aid in thickening.

Other cooks whisk in a small amount of sour cream, with or without the vinegar.

Traditional Dandelion Greens and Ham Dinners:

Some churches and social groups in Pennsylvania continue the tradition of holding these dinners

on “Green Thursday”; however, because of the quantity needed, most of the greens used are now

commercially sourced.

Sources

“American Classic I: Spinach Salad” episode, Good Eats television series, hosted by Alton

Brown.

https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/shows/good-eats/episodes/american-classic-i-spinach-salad

“Dandelion Salad-A First Taste of Spring”, “My Pennsylvania Dutch Culture”, Dollars and Sense

Times Two blog, Gabrielle Bryen, 28 March 2017.

http://www.dollarsandsensetimestwo.org/2017/03/dandelion-salad-first-taste-spring/

“Dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing a PA Dutch Easter staple”, Local Food Journey – an

exploration of what it means to eat local, WPSU (Penn State) Public Media for Central

Pennsylvania, Jamie Oberdick, 18 March 2018.

http://legacy.wpsu.org/localfoodjourney/comments/recipe_dandelion_salad_with_hot_bacon_dr

essing_a_pa_dutch_easter_staple

“Pennsylvania Dutch Salad”, Culinary Perspectives, undated.

https://www.culinaryperspectives.com/product-page/mary-s-dandelion-salad

“Plant History – how Dandelions came to North America” Act for Libraries blog, undated.

http://www.actforlibraries.org/plant-history-how-dandelions-came-to-north-america/

“A Wilting Pennsylvania Dutch Tradition: Ham and Dandelion Dinners”, Morning Call

newspaper, Jennifer Sheehan, 27 March 2015. https://www.mcall.com/entertainment/food-

drink/mc-pennsylvania-dutch-dandelion-dinner-20150327-story.html

April 2021 Page 35

At Home and in the Field is published quarterly as an exclusive

benefit for members of the Society for Women and the Civil

War.

Articles of interest to our membership, including period poetry,

stories of women’s contributions and period recipes, should be

directed to the Editor:

J. White – swcw1865@gmail.com

Our Geographical Regents:

North East US (CT, DE, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA,

RI, VT)

Doris Hayden

Mid-Atlantic US (DC, MD, NC, SC, VA, WV)

J. White

Deputy for Maryland

Dr. Anita Henderson

Mid-West US (AR, IL, IN, IO, KS, KY, MI, MN,

MO, NE, OH, OK, WI)

Tim Daley

South East US (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, PR, TN, VI)

Helga Torbert

Deputy for South East

Karen Kugell, Esq.

Northwest US (AK, CO, ID, MT, ND, OR, SD, UT,

WA, WY)

Lin Russell

Western US (AS, AZ, CA, GU, HI, MP, NM, NV,

TX)

Janet Whaley

Europe

Tabitha Miller

Asia

Kim Osieczonek

Society for Women and the Civil War – Board of Directors

President J. White

Vice President Janet Whaley

Corresponding Secretary Tabitha Miller

Recording Secretary Mary Louise Jesek Daley

Treasurer Dr. Gary Ryan

DeAnne Blanton Jim Knights

Dr. Dianne Kauffman Laurel Scott

Susan Youhn

Board members and Regents can be contacted via the

organization’s e-mail address: swcw1865@gmail.com